Record Labels Keep On Trying: Sue Baidu For Copyright Infringement Yet Again

from the keep-on-suing dept

Back in December, Alibaba, the Chinese search engine also known as Yahoo China, lost a lawsuit from the recording industry, claiming that the search engine facilitated the downloading of unauthorized content. It's no secret that part of the reason why Alibaba and Baidu have been able to succeed in China is that they're pretty blatant in helping people find content to download. What was strange, though, was at the same time that Yahoo/Alibaba was found guilty, Baidu was found not guilty of copyright infringement, upholding an earlier decision. However, despite having lost the case, it appears that the major record labels have simply turned around and sued Baidu yet again for copyright infringement. Unfortunately, the Reuters writeup doesn't get into the history of the earlier cases (one of which ended just over a month ago) to explain why the labels can simply turn around and sue again, despite having just lost a nearly identical case.

Record company insanity

Don't the RIAA/IFPI folks know that China is not a democracy? You can't just go around suing people willy-nilly in China. Sure, the courts in America tend to let people get away with this sort of behavior, but it's only a matter of time before someone high in the Chinese state hierarchy gets wise to their antics.

These lawyers are seriously playing with fire. Suing someone again, just because you lost the first time is pure lunacy. Pretty soon, you're going to be at the wrong end of an "interfering with the legitimate business of a Chinese state company" prosecution. You don't normally get out of those, except in a box.

just

IFPI-Baidu/Yahoo Case History - the true account

Mike, this should provide the necessary background and a more balanced view of why IFPI lost their Baidu case: www.music2dot0.com/archives/95
One of the main reasons why the IFPI lost their case against Baidu earlier is that they did not even serve take-down notices to Baidu.